The Supreme Court split evenly Thursday in a high-profile challenge over the nation’s first religious charter school, leaving in place a ruling from Oklahoma’s top court that found the proposed Catholic school unconstitutional.

Attorney General Gentner Drummond, also a Republican, sued to stop the school. He called the 4-4 vote “a resounding victory for religious liberty” that also will ensure that “Oklahoma taxpayers will not be forced to fund radical Islamic schools, while protecting the religious rights of families to choose any school they wish for their children.”

The case, a major test of the separation of church and state, was an unexpected loss for those advocating a greater role for religion in public life.